


Time and Tides

by Avriel



Series: Eternity Chase [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst, Curses, Friendship, Gen, Heavy Angst, Immortality, Loyalty, One Shot, Suicide Attempt, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 18:18:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18371504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avriel/pseuds/Avriel
Summary: He hated him. He loved him. He was his first friend. He was his last friend.But in the end, it all came down to the fact that he couldn't allow Luffy to suffer alone.Even if seeing him meant that one of them would have to die.





	Time and Tides

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys !
> 
> This is an AU series where Luffy has Zeref's curse of contradiction and a sequel to my other one shot. This one is from Zoro's POV. No knowledge of Fairy Tail is needed to understand this. Hope you guys enjoy this as much as I do!

Sensei had told him once out of the blue that he, apparently, had good intuition.

He wouldn't remember something like this, usually. Not something from so long ago.

But Sensei's praises came few and far in between. And the way Kuina had glared at him afterwards, had made it hard to forget.

He could've really used this ' intuition ' of his to predict Chopper's death or something.

But the day he died, it was normal.

No black cats in the middle of the sea, bearing misfortune. No accidentally breaking the cook's china. Not even any cliche rain shower.

It was just a day like any other.

So when Luffy called for help, he thought nothing of it. He just went.

The idiot probably fell into the sea again, or so he thought.

*

But what he saw in the infirmary that day, isn't something he's likely to ever forget.

No one else was there yet. Too busy in their own work.

Made too complacent by every day life.

Chopper was out cold, lifeless in Luffy's arms, who was desperately trying to get him to wake up.

He didn't waste a second.

None of them did, when they got there.

But it was all too late.

There were no visible markings or signs of poisoning, anywhere on his body.

But Chopper was dead as soon as he hit the floor.

*

The post mortem, it was messy to say the least.

No one wanted to harm Chopper's body. Hell, some didn't even want to let it out of sight.

But it had to be done.

Law did it. Being the only available doctor. And as much as he didn't like to admit it,

Chopper had grown on him.

Chopper who followed him around like a puppy, eager to learn.

Chopper who was just so... pure in his want to help people.

But whatever they had hoped for, closure, the truth or something else, It simply wasn't to be. The reports came out clean, almost too clean even. As expected from someone so particular about his health.

According to it, he should have lived a long, healthy life.At least, shouldn't have just died, like he did.

How could they accept something like that ?

Bullshit.

Sanji went as far as calling Law a quack.

But the results came out the same no matter how many times they did it.

Law was baffled. But they didn't give in.

No one was ready to accept that Chopper just dropped dead for no reason.

Perhaps, that was their way of coping.

But it just broke them sooner.

*

Nami and Usopp, they just cried and cried.

It amazed him sometimes how much tears they had left to shed.

Although, it wasn't just them who cried. They all did.

They just knew to hide it better.

The cook and Franky were alike in the most unconventional ways, it seemed. 

They desperately tried to act fine, normal at first but when they realized that they weren't fooling anyone, they just stopped.

Buried themselves in their work.

Nobody had the heart to tell Sanji that they weren't feeling up to eating. So they ate like kings everyday and never tasted a thing.

Franky made new gadgets everyday. Rarely leaving his room but to eat.

But his puffed, frantic eyes spoke plenty.

*

Robin acted so normally, it was kind of unbelievable at first. At least compared to everyone else. The adult of their group, she always went out of her way to help anybody who was struggling, smiling as coolly as always.

He didn't actually know at first, if she was just that strong or if Chopper's death hadn't sunk in yet.

But he'd hear nevertheless one day, soft sobs in the night, when she thought no one was listening.

Brook was fine enough, during the day.

But sometimes in the dark of the night he'd hear a laugh so hollow, so fed up that he'd wonder how Brook was even sane.

And he'd ask if having friends had spoiled him too much. If he'd be able to be strong, live if left alone.

But those were the good days.

Sometimes, Brook...would make him question,

What even makes a person sane ?

*

And the there was Luffy.

He knows what he said.

He told Luffy to become someone they could all depend on.

Be decisive.

Prideful but not arrogant.

And he still believes that.

It's simply what a captain is.

But nobody told him to shut himself off, be so strong that he breaks, from the inside.

But from the day Chopper died,

Luffy hadn't.... didn't allow himself to shed even a tear.

His days and nights spent solely on the broken keel that was the Strawhat Pirates.

He doesn't know what is was like when Ace died.

And he doesn't need to.

But he wouldn't allow Luffy to sacrifice, kill himself,

Even if he thinks, it's for the best of the crew.

*

Nami these days was a shadow of her former vibrant self.She wouldn't talk, wouldn't sleep. Money, beauty nothing seemed to matter to her anymore.

She was just there. Silently crying.

They really should've done something sooner. But the others weren't really much sooner.

They did what they could, but none of them were ready to give her what she really needed.

It just hit too close to home.

You couldn't talk of a hopeful future when all you could see was darkness.

But today, Nami refused to even eat, knowing fully well what it did to the cook.

So he thought he'd be relieved to hear that Luffy was talking to her.But all he felt was a strange, empty feeling of unease.

He shrugged it off.

This time when he heard a scream, Luffy's, something in his mind whispered,

'I told you so'.

*

This time he wasn't the first by much. Although he had remained close, most of his nakama were close behind him.

When they arrived somehow he wasn't even a bit surprised. The scene being made all too familiar by his dreams. Nami was collapsed on her bed, peacefully as if she was asleep.

But she wasn't breathing.

Luffy stood close, with a strange incomprehensible look on his face.

He didn't notice then, too busy yelling orders and the ensuing chaos.

But if he thought back to it, it was one of undiluted fear.

Nami was dead.

Whatever had killed Chopper had also killed Nami.

Nothing would ever be the same anymore.

*

He didn't talk to Luffy that day, too shaken up.

But he saw him that night.

Alone on the Sunny's figure head, crying.

That was the last time he'd see Luffy, in a long, long time.

Not that he knew that then. 

He chose to ignore him that night.

He didn't know why, but he was just so tired.

He'd do anything to take it back.

To latch on to his damned hands, his own life be forefeit.

But he couldn't.

The next day, Luffy disappeared without a trace.

He took the Mini - Merry and just left. Nobody was on watch last night. Too grieved to care.

All of them, selfishly locked in on their rooms. Himself included.

'Privacy', what a joke.

He wanted to gut himself.

Luffy sailing the New World alone, on a boat finally snapped them back into reality.

But before they could get the hang of sailing a ship without a navigator, reality hit and hit them hard.

*

The morning news finally relieved them from their worries.

Luffy was sighted on a nearby island. And someone snapped a lucky shot.

He was fine. Fighting Marines even. Not smiling. Not like he used to.

But he was okay.

That stirred something in them.

Chopper was dead.

Nami was dead.

Nothing was ever going to be the same again.

But..

They still had their nakama.

They still had Luffy.

Hope.

All the good that did.

They arrived to find a whole town dead.

The fishermen dead with their precious nets still in hand, full of rotting fish.

The mother and her child laid across the ground, as if peacefully asleep.

Hands still linked.

As if the whole town just...fell asleep in frozen time.

No trace of Luffy anywhere.

It was the same everywhere. No matter where Luffy went, the whole population ended up annihilated.

Zero survivors, only Luffy.

And Luffy?

He just ran, ran and ran.

As if from them. For them.

They woke up one day, to find themselves infamous. Racking up more body count than the Pirate King.

With a captain framed to be immortal.

They didn't know ....what to think.

They just had to find Luffy first.

*

It wasn't as though there was a lack of speculation surrounding Luffy. A curse, a new type of Haki, a second devil fruit, some sort of awakening, it went on and on.

Everyone had something to say about the man most wanted by the Big Three.

It was just the lack of proof and information about what the hell Luffy had.

Nothing like it was ever seen before, that's for sure.

Leave it to his captain, to catch the most unprecedented ' disease ' in the world.

Even the World Government's elite were baffled.

Failing to end or even contain him. Or use him.

Even finding Luffy proved to be a hassle. Locating him in time was near impossible.

His condition left no survivors, so it took days, sometimes weeks before the news about the attack would spread.

So by the time it'd reach their ears, he'd already be long gone.

They'd try to keep track of him.

They and all the people who were looking for him.

But he'd always find a way to shake them off.

Zoro wasn't one to call someone invincible, but Luffy was just that.

Invincible, immortal.

It seemed to him that no matter what they did, they were just a step too slow.

You simply don't understand how much your mortality burdens you, until you face off an immortal.

*

Zoro didn't know what he'd actually do, when they eventually found Luffy.

But he did.They all did.

It was how it was with them, these days.

Silently, efficiently hunting down their captain in the day. Never mentioning the night.

Neither Usopp's increasing new scars, pale pink and barely visible under his clothes.

Nor the cook's excessive drinking habit, that left him retching on the deck.

Not even, Brook's sudden bouts of insanity.

They all had things like that, days like that.

It was all they could do to see tomorrow, sometimes.

They wouldn't let him suffer anymore. Their lives be forefeit.

He surely knew it too. Their conviction.

Luffy who ran from island to island.

Fervently killing, crying , destroying the world for their sake.

Only to protect them.

So they'll chase him down. Not for some 'noble' cause, as to save the world or something. They were never about that.

But for Luffy, their world.

But even with all their conviction, it hurt nonetheless when it all came crashing down.

When on an island the cook, Brook and Usopp ended up dead.

It wasn't anybody's fault.

They just ran into Luffy alone. It could have been anybody.

But it seemed to him that he'd killed them by his own hands.

Failing them.

Failing him, again.

Still years went by.

Dreams were fulfilled, but some things never change.

The chase is coming to a close.

*

Most of his friends are already dead.

Even in their deathbed, Robin and Franky only asked him to save Luffy. Apologetic to the point of tears. He had reassured them then.

" I will save him ", he said confidently. It was their goal all along.

They had just smiled sadly. As if they were in on some secret that he had no knowledge about. 

So why?

Even after all those years of training, every swing to save Luffy, his face burned at the back of his eyes.

Why does his hands shake so much?

Why,

as he looks at Luffy, his captain, saviour, best friend-the same, unchanged as the night Nami died,

Why does it hurt so much?

Why does he, after such a long time still ask,

Why did it have to be you?


End file.
